. >> house speaker john boehner. professor, your response? also, the obama administration was warning catastrophe is sequestration took place. it took place. >> it is a stunning comment on our dysfunctional government built on top of a dysfunctional economy. here we are in the middle of a crisis. we have millions of people without work. millions of people are losing their homes. we have an economy that does not work for the vast majority. the u.s. government is one of the major customers for goods and services in america. sequestration is simply a cutback in government spending. it does not take rocket science to understand that if the government of the largest single buyer of goods and services cuts back on the goods and services it buys, that means companies across america will sell less and they will have less need of workers and it will lay off workers. so this is in fact that worsens and employment is already severe. if you put that together with the tax increase on january 1 -- let me say a word about that. we heard a lot of public deba